Backside Illumination (BSI) image sensor chips are replacing front-side illumination sensor chips for their higher efficiency in capturing photons. In the formation of BSI image sensor chips, image sensors (such as photo diodes) and logic circuits are formed on a silicon substrate of a wafer, followed by the formation of an interconnect structure on a front side of a silicon chip. The wafer is then thinned, and backside structures such as color filters and micro-lenses are formed on the backside of the silicon substrate.
The image sensors in the BSI image sensor chips generate electrical signals in response to the stimulation of photons. The magnitudes of the electrical signals (such as the currents) depend on the intensity of the incident light received by the respective image sensors. To increase the quantum efficiency of image sensors, the image sensors are preferably to occupy a high percent of the chip area that is used by the pixel units, which pixel units include the image sensors. Due to the fact that the pixel units also include additional devices besides the image sensors, including, for example, transfer gate transistors, reset transistors, source followers, and row selectors, the improvement in the quantum efficiency is limited.